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This volume contains an account of the life of the Prophet Muhammad up to his migration to Medina and building of the Quba mosque on the city’s outskirts. It was authored by the renowned Ottoman writer and poet Üveys ibn-i Mehmed, whose mahlas was Veysi (died 1037 AH/1628 CE). The work is commonly known as the Siyer-i Veysi.

Veysi was born in 969 AH/1561-2 CE in Alaşehir, Manisa. After beginning his education in the town of his birth, he went to Istanbul and completed his studies with Molla Salih Efendi. He served as a kadı in various locations in the Ottoman Empire, including in the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Arab lands. He also served for a time as a scribe of the divan in Egypt, a financial inspector in Aydın and Saruhan, and an army judge during a campaign to Hungary. Remarkably, he served as kadı of Skopje (Üsküp) on seven occasions, being removed from that position for the final time in Muharrem 1036 AH/September 1626 CE. He died in the city on 14 Zilhicce 1037 AH/15 August 1628 CE.

Despite his notable works of poetry, Veysi’s literary fame derives more from his output in prose. He was described by Babinger as the most brilliant writer of Ottoman prose after Baki, whilst his contemporary Nev‘izade Atai (died 1045 AH/1635 CE) considered his prose to be superior to his poetry. His prose style has been described as difficult to understand based on his use of Arabic and Persian loan-words and phrases and his use of rhetorical devices such as metaphors, similes, and puns. He also makes heavy use of chain phrases and compound nouns and adjectives within often lengthy sentences (see Menzel & Ambros, ‘Weysī,’ and Kaya, ‘Veysî’ for more).

Veysi’s Siyer is considered to be the first independently authored (not translated from Arabic and Persian) Prophetic biography in Ottoman Turkish. He nevertheless relied on a range of classical and later sources, including books of history, tefsir, hadith, biographies and dictionaries. He intended the work to comprise two volumes on the Meccan and Medinan period respectively. He managed to complete the first of these, but passed away during his writing of the Medinan period, having reached the period covering the Battle of Badr (2 AH/624 CE). Veysi composed the Siyer in ornate prose and with sincere and emotional expression. This style was taken as a model by later writers (Erkan, ‘Dürretü’t-tâc’). The work includes sixty-five Ottoman Turkish beyitler, as well as twenty-eight in Arabic and 209 in Persian.

Though Veysi’s Siyer was left incomplete, supplements (zeyiller) to the work were composed by Atai, Nabi (died 1124 AH/1712 CE), and Nazmizade (died 1136 AH/1723 CE), amongst others. In fact, Nabi also composed a second zeyil twenty years after completing his first, called the Zeyl-i zeyl-i Nabi.

The Siyer is organised as series of makaleler (articles or discourses). The makale of the Meccan period are: f 3r, the lineage of Muhammad; 8v, the discovery and cleaning of the Zamzam Well; 12r, the marriage of Muhammad’s parents Abdullah and Amina; 17v, the names and appellations of the Prophet; 19r, his birth; 30r, Muhammad being entrusted to his foster mother Halima; 31v, a list (fihrist) of the most important events in his life for easy consultation; 33r, Muhammad’s return from Halima’s care to Mecca; 38r, the deaths of his mother and grandfather and the years of drought; 39r, Muhammad’s journey to Damascus with a trade caravan; 43r, his second trip to Damascus and his marriage to Khadija upon his return to Mecca; 55r, the repair of the Ka‘ba; 57v, the first revelation; 63r, the first Muslims; 64r, the early calls to Islam; 66v, persecution of Muslims in Mecca; 68r, the migration to Abyssinia; 68v, the incident of the Satanic Verses; 71r, the delegation of the Quraysh to Abyssinia; the conversions of Hamza (76r), Umar (79r); 89r, the Quraysh try and fail to persuade Abu Talib to cease protecting his nephew Muhammad; 91r, the boycott of the Banu Hashim and Banu ‘Abd al-Muttalib; 97v, conversion of the jinn; 101v, the Night Journey and the ritual prayer being made obligatory, 114v, the Prophet’s preaching during the hajj season and the entry of the Helpers (Ansar) to Islam; and 118v, the migration (Hijra) to Medina and the building of the Quba mosque in its outskirts. The text ends on 139r, with a note on the date of the Hijra, which accords with the closing passage of the Meccan section in the printed edition from 1286 AH/1869 CE. The present copy thus does not include Veysi’s section on the Meccan period, which concludes with the aftermath of the Battle of Badr.

Among the additional contents of the present copy is a laudatory description in Persian of Veysi’s work on f 1r. The copy is also distinguished by the fact that it was in the possession of a number of prominent personalities from the twelfth century AH/eighteenth century CE, as seen from the inscriptions on f 2r (see below section on custodial history for more).

Begins:

Künun vaktest kez kilk-i suhanguy * bi-su-yi zikr-i Peygamber nihem ruy / biguyem şerh-i ahval-i Peygamber * Penah-i ‘asiyan Ruz-i Mahşer. Dibace-tırazan-i sahayıf-i asare hafi değildir ki ol Hatim-i yemin-i risalet...

Ends:

Keyfiyet ve sun‘-i Tarih-i İslam inşallah Teala hilafet-i zahire-i Ömeriyenin matavi-i asarine derç olunmağa kalem-i zaman-i şirin-zeban-i Veysi-i şikeste-beyan müte’ehhiddir...

The colophon on 139r states that the copy was produced in Muharrem 1089 AH/1678 CE by Ahmed Fasih ibn-i Mehmed ibn-i Ahmed.